Report from the Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence and appendix.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts.
Date:
1881
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on the Contagious Diseases Acts : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    293/620 (page 269)
    23 June 1881.] Mr. Stigant. [ Continued. Mr. Stansfeld—continued, is of separate individuals ; were all these indivi- duals registered women ?—I suppose so. 5940. I take the year 187.3. According to your return, 374 individual women passed through the Lock Hospital, and I find that at the end of the year 1872 the total number of women re- maining on the register was 192, and the number of individual women registered for the first time during the year was 150, making a total of 342, without deducting those who went off, so that apparently the number of individual women who went to this hospital was considerably larger than the whole number of registered women, without even making any deduction for those who went off the register in the course of the year. Can you explain the apparent inconsistency between those figures?—I do not see much dis- crepancy. Mr. Osborne Morgan. 5941. Are there any women admitted to the hospital not on the register ?—I am not clear upon that point. The first column, the number of cases, indicates that they were more than once in the year. Mr. Stansfeld. 5942. In 1873 you had 374 women who passed in the Lock Hospital ?—I judge so from that re- port. ]\Ir. Stansfeld. I find in the year 1873 there were not so many as 342 women on the register. Mr. Osborne Morgan. 5943-4. Other women are admitted into the Lock Hospital. There are a great many women seat from other districts ?—Yes. 5945. Is it not the fact that women are sent from Gravesend, Sheerness, Maidstone, and Canterbury ?—Yes. ^h-. Stansfeld. 5946. How are they sent from these places. Are they under the Acts?—Canterbury and Maidstone are under the Acts. Mr. Osborne Morgan. 5947. It is the hospital for all these districts ? —Yes. ilr. Stansfeld. 5948. i'ou do not produce this return as a return of women, all of whom -were upon the Chatham register ?—Oh, no. 5949. In fact you produce it rather to show the proportion of women who passed through the hospital, and are refoi-med ?—Yes. Mr. Stansfeld—continued. 5950. Now we will take it in that way. How do you know they were reformed ?—I do not know. I am quite dependent upon the records of the authorities of the hospital. 5951. How did you obtain this return?—I merely applied for it. 5952. You do not know what the meaning of the term is which were reformed?—Well, I should gather that they had given up their bad kind of life, and had become free from the opera- tion of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and had niuigled with society again. 5953. That they had gone off the register?— Yes. 5954. Are you prepared to say that that list includes no women who, after they were supposed to be reformed, returned to their evil way?— I am not prepared to say that. 5955. 1 find the proportion of those who are reformed, according to your Chatham experience, is very small. In 1871 it is 5S out of 351 ; in 1872 It is 49 out of 362 ; in 1875 it is 35 out of 300 ; and, in 1876 it is 42 out 279, and so on ?— Yes ; it is a matter of individual opinion, but it is a thing I rejoice over, and for which I com- mend the Acts, because so many may be said to have been reformed coming under their operation. It may appear small compared with the number who come in, but it is a great point in the working of the Acts that it can be said that so many coming under their operation are reformed. 5956. We might put the average at perhaps 15 per cent., and of these you cannot say that they never return to their evil ways ?—Xo. 5957. Do you consider that an amount of re- formation to boast about ?—Yes, I do, especially when I see that in laior years the per-centage of reform is very much more than it was ten years ago, and I think, upon a parity of reasoning, it fihows beneficial operation. 5958. In 1877, 347 passed through and 40 were reformed ; in 1871, 351 passed through and 58 were reformed. The proportion is rather less ?—1877 would be rather less, but in the latter years there is a considerable improvement. In 1880 you will find 290 admissions, and 79 reformed, giving something like 20 per cent, instead of 10 or 11. 5959. If you take 1880, no doubt that is a very good year?— And the year before it is very nearly as good, showing the continuous improve- ment. 5960. 1877 and 1878 are not good years, are they ?—I came to the conclusion that there was a gradual improvement. I did not get that return for the purpose of presenting it to this Committee at all. It was for ray own informa- tion, and not for the purpose of presenting here as a paper. Mr. William Pittock, called in; and Examined. Mr. Osborne Morgan. 5961. You are an inhabitant of the town of Deal ?—Yes. 5962. How long have you lived In Deal?— For the last 30 years. 5963. Do you hold any office in Deal ?—No public office. 0.44. Mr. Osborne Morgan—continued. 5964. You simply come as an inhabitant ?— Simply as an inhabitant. 5965. Did you know Deal before these Acts, as to which we are now inquiring came into operation, as well as since?—Decidedly. 5966. Your attention has been called to the L L 3 influence